


The Big World

by thesalukihusker



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-07
Updated: 2019-08-07
Packaged: 2020-08-11 08:34:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 678
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20150707
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thesalukihusker/pseuds/thesalukihusker
Summary: It's their daughter's graduation day.





	The Big World

**Author's Note:**

> Notes: fluffy as a puppy. This is a modern-day AU. Nancy and Jonathan celebrate their daughter's college graduation. This assumes their daughter was born in the early 90s. Jonathan is that sappy, embarrassing dad who takes all the photos. I focused a lot on him in this story, and his relationship with their daughter. As always, I don’t own them, I just ship them and want them to be happy. On with the show.

"Get in closer! One more photo with everybody. And then Nance and Mandy, I want a couple more of just the two of you!”

Amanda Byers rolls her eyes. She knows these won’t be the last photos. It’s her college graduation today. When your dad is a sought-after music photographer, and your mom is the City bureau chief for the Chicago Sun-Times, it’s no surprise that you major in Journalism. And it’s also no surprise that her father – he is Jonathan Byers, after all – insists on getting as many photos as possible. He’s already maxed out one memory card this weekend.

Jonathan may have lied, just a little – it was more like five or six more photos, plus the ones taken with Nancy’s smartphone. He’s captured every moment of this day, in both photos and video. “Ok, that was the last one,” Jonathan says, pulling his daughter in to a hug. He’s tearing up again. “We’re so, so proud of you,” he tells her, the emotions of the day obvious in his voice.

###

She was seven years old when she first heard, or rather – overheard – about the monsters that haunted her parents’ hometown. About a Demogorgon, and a gate to another world, and a girl with superpowers. About how her parents fought the monsters and saved her Uncle Will. It all seemed unbelievable, too fantastical to be true. Years later, Amanda would come across the newspaper stories about the “chemical leak” that caused Barbara Holland’s death. Nancy and Jonathan told her about the Russians and the secret underneath Starcourt Mall. Amanda wanted to know more, wanted to read the headlines and see the photos. She wanted to know why, why her family, how something like this could have happened. She was her mother’s daughter, always curious, always questioning. 

Mandy, as her parents called her, would follow them around the house with a notepad. She’d ask a ton of questions about everything, from the mundane to world events. She once asked Nancy to let her tag along to the Mayor’s news conference (as thrilled as Nancy was that her daughter wanted to be there, she had a test that day). And now here she was, about to begin her career, with new tools but the same drive to know. Nancy and Jonathan were told more than once that their young daughter had high ambitions. Jonathan just smiled – would she be our daughter if she didn’t?

###

“Oh my God. They’re so embarrassing.”

When Amanda’s name is called, she walks across the stage to a loud response from her family. _All_ of them. Nancy, both sets of grandparents, her aunt Holly, her Uncles and their partners – all cheering and whistling as she received her diploma. Except one. Jonathan had left his seat, and was now as close to the stage as he could get. He was documenting every moment. They lock eyes, and she sees the emotion, the tears and the adoration on her father’s face. As she walks back to her seat, she sees that he’s now returned to sitting next to her mother. Jonathan is holding hands with Nancy and Joyce. They’re all crying happy tears. Amanda starts to get teary-eyed, too.

###

It’s two weeks later, on a Sunday morning, when Nancy finds Jonathan in their home office. He’s frantically typing an email, and a Facebook post is waiting to be published. “Is everything okay?,” she asks, concern on her face. She hasn’t yet seen the morning paper. “It’s better than okay,” Jonathan tells her, handing her the front section of the Indianapolis Star. Nancy sits next to him, sees the email and then checks the paper. It’s their daughter's first front-page story.

_ State ends monitoring at former lab site in Hawkins_

_ Amanda J. Byers, Metro reporter_

Jonathan is emailing everyone they know, sharing Amanda’s story and detailing all the hard work she put in to it. They’ve never been more proud of their daughter. Corrupt government labs and monsters in the dark don’t stand a chance against her.

Jonathan puts a reminder in his smartphone: get picture frames.


End file.
